Analyzing 600,000 Twitter profiles should provide enough valuable data on how we use Twitter–although keep reading for my concern on this–and the main findings include:

Twitter is dominated by newer users – 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008

An estimated 5-10 thousand new accounts are opened per day

35% of Twitter users have 10 or fewer followers

9% of Twitter users follow no one at all

There is a strong correlation between the number of followers you have and the number of people you follow

OK, here is my concern. What if these numbers are heavily skewed by the type of Twitter user that uses Twitter Grader? Most of the people that I observe getting obsessed over their "Twitter Grade" tend to be newer to the service anyway–evidenced by the fact that as you use Twitter, you realize it’s not a numbers game.

Don’t get me wrong, you should read this report–it’s packed with some interesting stats–but I’m holding out for Twitter itself to release some numbers.

Lisa

I agree with your perspective. I’ve been on Twitter for a year and I am very particular about who I follow – and who follows me. The obsession with having thousands of followers is just as bizarre as having thousands of friends – you know no one well.

http://Blog.HubSpot.com Mike Volpe – HubSpot

Clearly the best data would come from Twitter themselves! But without that, we believe our sample of over 600,000 Twitter profiles is pretty useful. For instance within our sample – which seems to be about 10 percent of Twitter as a whole – three percent had 0 followers, 9 percent didn’t follow anyone else, and 22 percent had five or fewer followers. So I don’t think our sample is only the most vain or active users.

PS – I’ll take the B+ with pleasure. The only ones who can get an A are Twitter themselves…